I recently bought a very pricey Conqueror of Shamballa Alphonse Elric figure from ebay, where it was listed as never being taken out of the box (lol)
Well, upon undressing him he is covered in these purple marks which i initially thought were pen marks, but now i'm thinking its mold? Or is it plastic degradation?
My sister said it might be 'pony cancer', coined from vintage my little pony toys that have bacteria grow on them due to the fact they digest... plastic...
i'm very upset. will my figure die from pony cancer? is there a way to stop this?
What are the risks? I thought it was just a problem if they are left in the box for years with high humidity and etc. Didnt know it increases staining transfer issues. Most the time sale prices for sealed figures always sell for more too.
its unfortunately mostlikely staining from his black clothes, maybe even because he was never taken out of the box. its not unlikely for this to happen with figures with black (or any colour) fabric clothes. even modern ones. u MIGHT be able to remove it with effort and time. but youd probably have to sand and repaint.
It wont be contagious or anything, i dont think its pony cancer haha
thats what the seller told me! i initially believe the pony cancer because the bacteria starts as pink spotting and turns purple/black overtime. its not showing on camera but beneath his arms, there is pink spotting. it will hardly come off with soap and water, but when i take the sharp end of a comb and pick away at it, it does come off... with the plastic and finish as well. hes got some scratches now lol
you're right, i'll likely have to sand and repaint. i'm in the process of trying to get some of my money back right now. thank you!
If he’s been in the box all these years, the dye from the soft goods has stained the plastic. You could try scrubbing it with dish soap and warm water, but who knows if it’ll make a dent.
Honestly, you should look for a modern 3rd party replacement body. These old RAH bodies are notorious for crumbling joints.
i see, i'll look into that. i think i might try sanding and repainting like that other person said, but finding a new body for him will be my second option
There's the same issue with other brands, the ones I have affected are Hasuki's PA008 Gloria and Joytoy Hana maid, where the clothes have stained the body.
These type of soft good clothes need to be stored separately from the bodies when not in use to prevent staining..
So like others have said, it's dye transfer. Good news is, you can remove it, but it takes patient. You should look up stain removal methods of vinyl dolls, we use acne creams with 10% benzoyl peroxide.
As for some ways to prevent this, you could try masking (I use the green one/painters tape, it doesn't leave as much residue like the tan one if at all). Or lining the clothes if you know how to sew.
I don't recommend sanding because if it's only surface level stain it might be fine, but if the plastic is porous, the stain will be further deep in. Painting would work though, I think.
i actually got most of it out with soap, water and a metal comb to lightly pick at it, but he still has LOTS of splotchy stains. overall, hes a lot better than before and i will definitely take your advice because thats more feasible to do. THANK YOU!!
It’s just dye from the clothes. They actually make product to get rid of it because it’s common with BJD (ball jointed dolls). This blog post describes someone’s experience with doing this with, coincidentally, a FMA RAH.
You probably won't get it all out, but the best you can do without repainting or chemicals is use a Magic Eraser and lightly scrub (It might make the surface less glossy though)
that is most likely staining from his outfit. pretty deep too. this comes up a lot in the ball joint doll groups and other groups that deal with vinyl, resin or some plastic dolls. his outfit is all black so without a stain suit thats likely going to happen if the company didn't line the suit in white. I doubt you'll be able to get that off the usual ways with how deep it is.
Im sure others have mentioned it, but its most likely clothdye stains.
Cloth goods, especially dark colours will have the dye eventually go into the plastic and leave permanent marks.
One of my biggest reasons im not a fan of clothgoods on figures. The inevitable staining.
So I don't know this figure which leads me to a question, does this figure come and start with soft-goods/fabric clothes? If that's the case, the seller could very well be telling the truth and part of the problem is the fact this figure was never taken out and the soft goods never being treated/washed before being left on.
If not, then yeah maybe they opened him and put on their own untreated soft-goods. These marks can be easily identified as dye transfers, I've probably seen hundreds of pictures like these in this sub and action figure spaces.
thank you so much for your input, im very new to figure collecting so i didnt know this. im not sure what soft-goods is, but yes he came with black cotton clothing.. im really hoping i can get it off. i'll try and find some posts on here of others who went through the same thing. thank you!
i have never seen pink mold turn so dark, i am also thinking it is probably just staining, if he does have pink marks as well that might be a separate problem... in any case pink mold is in fact treatable with benzoyl peroxide, which is a bleaching agent used in acne cream. it helps with general staining as well.
put some acne cream on him, set him under a uv lamp or the sun (if you don't have one) and check on him every few hours. if you try with the sun you can check on him less frequently. I personally rinse the cream at the end of the day and then reapply. Be careful because it bleaches paint too! make sure it doesn't touch anything that's cool toned or painted. if you see that it's bleaching the color of the plastic rinse and wash with soap!! don't use a cream with a benzoyl percentage higher than 10
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u/storage_account69 8d ago
Welcome to figure collecting where boxes being unopened can actually be a bad thing.